Spring Writes: Week 4

I’m no angel either… when it comes to demolishing weekly writing goals!!!

Welcome to Week Four, Spring Writers! This week we’re joined by Mike, who was also part of Fall Writes. Welcome, Mike!

If you’re looking for some writing inspiration, tips on setting a daily writing goals, or just another blog post about how important accountability is, check out Ryan Cordell’s “Writing 20 Minutes Every. Single. Day.” at ProfHacker.

Here are your writing goals for the week:

Sarah: Draft the conference proposal I didn’t get around to last week; continue the long process of finding a discussant for UHA; two full days at NARA working with a new record group; one evening session at LoC to keep up on historiography.

Mike: Monday: 4 poms on Russian Ethnography.
Tuesday: 4 poms on football fandom article and 6 poms on candidacy readings. Make sure to pick up books from the library that you should be reading that day!
Wednesday: 2 poms on Russian ethnography and 2 poms on writing abstract for the conference.
Thursday: 4 poms on Dissertation proposal and 4 poms on readings.
Friday: 4 poms on dissertation proposal and 2 on formal aspects of Russian.
Weekend: Revise methodology section of Fulbright proposal.

Nicole: 1) Chapter 2 is still my main agenda. I am working on it still, not as far as I had wanted to be (target was 2/12 to be done with this draft– ugh). To continue my mining metaphor, I am still pulling things/ “gems” into my revised outline from two 50 ss page documents of raw material (one of prior examples, the other of prior lit and analysis). There have been more things I have been pulling up to make tables that I will or will not use, fill out examples, etc. So, still in media res, though the place of this chapter in the progression of the whole diss. is much clearer now that I revised all my chapter summaries (was not in last week’s goal list but got done this week). In a week’s time I hope to be closer to being done (though I have another commitment beginning Thurs. AM). [Still working on tasks 2, 4, 5 + 6 from last week.]
2) I may be able to get a paper back to a journal this week– out of my hands somewhat– will take a bit of time if so.

Bunny: Better focus, less distraction! Post two papers, discussion question post/reply , and get research accomplished for at least one additional paper!

Meg: Tuesday: work on my stuff from 2 to 5pm
Wednesday: 9am to 1pm
Thursday: 2 to 5pm
Friday: 9am to 1pm

Dan: My time goals are going to be four poms Tuesday and eight Wednesday through Saturday, but on top of that, I’m going to block off the same time Wednesday through Saturday to do this. So on all of those days, I’m going to write from 1 to 5:30.

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5 thoughts on “Spring Writes: Week 4”

Okay! So I did much better this week re my daily goals. Setting aside a certain time of day for work really, really helped a lot. I was more productive, and work didn’t stress me out as much, because I didn’t have to think about when I would start working, since I had already made that decision. The only day I didn’t make my goal was Saturday, because I had to walk to the copy shop and run off materials for my classes this week. (Here if we want bulk copies, we have to submit them several days in advance to the campus printing services, and I just wasn’t on top of finding materials earlier in the week. So my bad.) However, I banked some extra work time earlier in the week, so I think it all evened out. I’m also happy to say that I met my weekly goals! I submitted all five textbook entries, two fellowship applications, one grant application, and some contract work that unexpectedly dropped in my lap earlier in the week. I also got back to working on the book manuscript, as I began to write up a really interesting memoir that I want to incorporate into my third chapter.

For the coming week, I’m going to keep my same time and scheduling goals. I have two applications to submit, as well as a blog post for another site. In addition to those, I want to spend more time this week working on the manuscript. Since I had some time away after the defense, it feels nice to be working on new material!

I don’t know which week I set goals for and what I am accounting for (it’s that kind of semester)… BUT. last week I wrote a paper abstract for another conference, wrote the proposal for the panel I’m organizing, and wrote FOUR THOUSAND WORDS on a two day binge. realizing how vital my free days are to moving this thing along. protect your work from home days at all costs!

Last week’s goals were interrupted by the snow and shutdowns – I got one day in at NARA and zero time at LoC. And

This week’s goals are largely the same: 1 day at NARA; 1 evening at LoC; keep working on finding a UHA discussant (anyone have ideas for people who could comment on a panel about urban disaster management? March 1 is rapidly approaching…); spend some good, focused time reading the chapter comments I just received.